Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Photography

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Photography

Overview of our MFA in Photography

Our Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Photography is a two-year program for students with a previous education or demonstrable expertise in photography. New York Film Academy master’s degree programs are offered at our Los Angeles campus.

Fulbright Spotlight with Photographer Monika Sedziute

An MFA in Photography program at the Photo Arts Conservatory at the New York Film Academy (PAC at NYFA) is an accelerated, conservatory-based, graduate program designed for full-time study over the course of four semesters. We provide a creative setting in which to develop, challenge, and inspire the skills and talents of prospective photographers in an immersive, stimulating environment. By combining seminars and lectures with intense, hands-on classes, students acquire a sound understanding and appreciation of still photography and learn to integrate knowledge and professional experience.

At the Photo Arts Conservatory at NYFA, students engage with a diverse international student body and a core faculty of working professionals. The MFA in Photography program includes visits to museums, galleries, and studios, along with guest lectures and critiques by photographers, artists, and curators. PAC embraces all lens-based media, offering a unique curriculum that includes digital and film-based photography. Though all MFA candidates must take two semesters of Lighting, Imaging, Printing, and Introductory Theory, beginning in Semester Two students are able to choose the rest of their course load themselves. Co-chairs Kean O’Brien and Naomi White, along with faculty, will personally answer your questions and make recommendations about which courses are right for you based on your needs and intentions.

PAC faculty are committed to our Photography students and their futures as successful image-makers. Through demanding, hands-on coursework, instructors help students keep pace with technological change and push them to excel in all the areas needed to compete in the ever evolving marketplace.

Candidates for the MFA in Photography from PAC at NYFA must complete at least 63 credits, maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA, and produce a successful thesis project to be eligible for degree conferral.

Applicants to the program who have graduated from NYFA’s One-Year, Two-Year, or BFA in Photography programs, or an equivalent program from another institution, may attempt to test out of certain foundational courses within the MFA program. All evaluations and decisions are at the sole discretion of the department chairs, and are final. Students who successfully test out of any courses will substitute other courses in their place, and must fulfill the 63 total credit minimum, as well as all course category requirements.

PHOTOGRAPHY MFA: PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

In the first and second semesters of pursuing a photography MFA degree, students work intensively with available and artificial lighting on a wide variety of assignments, learn to analyze and critique images, and develop essential skills in conceptualizing, composing, and developing their own visual language.

In addition to their required core courses in their first two semesters, students choose from a variety of concept-driven courses that continue to introduce new skills and techniques while exploring ideas that push them to develop their voice. Students are required to take a certain number of classes within five areas of study--lighting, imaging/printing, business/marketing, history/theory, and art practice.

The final work must include gallery-quality prints with an accompanying statement by the artist. Students choose a fine art, documentary, journalistic, or commercial approach, and are evaluated by the standards established for those genres. Thesis projects are assessed by the chairs, faculty, and mentors.

MFA photography students also learn the best methods for marketing to their target audiences. Coursework includes branding approaches, marketing plans, and self-promotion techniques.

Students in Semesters Two - Four choose classes within these categories of study:

Lighting Learning Outcomes

Perform professional photo shoots using DSLRs and fixed and zoom lenses.

Evaluate the components of exposure by comparing and contrasting aperture ranges, shutter speeds, lenses, lighting tools, and filtration options on a wide variety of subjects.

Recognize the characteristics of light and make creative use of lighting tools, perspective, and environments.

Pre-visualize an image and realize it through lighting and photographic techniques.

Examine and discuss the work of seminal visual artists from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Investigate current trends and key technical, formal, and conceptual issues in photography, and articulate these in verbal and written form.

Apply technological, artistic, social, and cultural currents from the history of photography and contemporary photographic practice, and be able to relate their work to photographic history and practice.

Art Practice Learning Outcomes

Analyze the effect visual media has on the way contemporary society reads images.

Identify key technical, formal, and conceptual issues in their creative work and the work of others, and articulate these in verbal and written form.

Explore multiple mediums of art to develop an authentic voice and style.

Plan and design their final thesis exhibition, including the sequencing, sizing, and printing of images, using mounting, framing, and/or hanging techniques, with awareness of contemporary exhibition protocols.

Photography Essentials

Students investigate concept-driven photography by conceptualizing and producing a body of creative work, which represents the themes and iconography that interest them most. Based on a single concept, students are guided to follow current business practices, writing an artist statement and bio to accompany their images.

Contemporary Issues in Photography

This course examines works of art from a diverse range of social and political roots to personal and narrative imagery through the study of artists and opens the discussion of content versus form. Topics include, “Why style rather than non-style?”, “How does style apply to form?” and “Can the content of a work be articulated in different styles?”. Artists, critics and curators will be invited to participate in class discussions.

The Critical Eye

This course is designed to help students develop and refine their analytic sensibilities. Reviewing a wide range of historic and contemporary artworks along with the writings of art critics and historians, students will investigate the ways in which society processes and assesses images.

Through in-depth investigation of the cultural and aesthetic implications of the images they review, the class will explore their ability to influence viewers’ reactions and perceptions. This course also examines how this line of critical thinking applies to photography as a whole. Students will apply this knowledge to the production of their images.

Imaging Essentials I

This immersive course explores the theory and practice of post-production techniques for still photography. Students are trained in digital and analog techniques so they are equipped with all the relevant tools for effective workflow and final high quality output.

Professional Lighting Practices I

In this hands-on course, students’ lighting skills are advanced in all aspects of available and artificial lighting. They will further their understanding of the intricacies and importance that light has to the photographic process and how mastering these concepts will lead to cogent solutions. In-class and outside assignments will specifically give students problem-solving, practical tools.

Photography Practicum I

Students’ skills in visual perception are refined as they embark on a series of shooting assignments in studio and/or on location using large format camera systems. Students receive valuable direction and feedback in technique and aesthetics via a series of in-class critiquing sessions and are guided through in-depth and challenging exercises.

Historical & Critical Perspectives I

Through lectures, discussion, guest presentations, readings and hands-on projects, students will examine various forms of non-fiction storytelling, both moving and still. This course explores the narrative through a range of traditional disciplines such as (but not limited to): documentary, journalism, fine art, anthropology, and science. Storytelling evolves in response to cultural context and socio-political climates. In this course students will examine and understand this constant evolution and consider how storytelling has changed both historically and with 21st Century technology.

Prerequisite(s): Successful Completion of Semester 1 Courses

Professional Methods I

This course offers a forum for discussion of various topics such as: how the tools you use affect the outcome of a project, contemporary print aesthetics, the new color, a return to black and white, the power of the edit, and is analog post production still a viable method in a digital arena. Through hands-on projects, students will explore connections and apply this to their own practice.

Imaging Essentials II

An in-depth follow up to Imaging Essentials I, this lab-based course enables students to further their mastery of RAW processing, color management and workflow practices while developing advanced perceptual skills. Students will also explore a range of possibilities for printing images.

Students will receive in-depth training in visual perception, advancing their ability to see and orchestrate subtle differences in tone and color with the end goal of developing a unique personal palette and visual style. Students will composite entirely new visual worlds using transformations, layer masks, tone, texture and color matching. Furthering their skills in RAW processing, they will learn commercial retouching and advanced color and tone control within multiple color spaces. This course further demystifies color management enabling students to achieve consistently accurate results throughout their work. RGB, CMYK and LAB color spaces, conversions and workflow configuration will also be covered.

Prerequisite(s): Imaging Essentials I

Professional Lighting Practices II

Professional Lighting Practices II provides students with a constructive forum in which they are encouraged to take stock of their current skill set and further develop their professional objectives. Extending their knowledge from Semester One, students refine their lighting practice further with individually directed assignments. Instructors offer a mentored environment for students to initiate and produce assignments in their specific areas of interest.

Prerequisite(s): Professional Lighting Practices I

Photography Practicum II

This practical course builds on the principles taught in Photography Practicum I and further refines students’ skills in medium and large format digital and analog systems. Students work extensively with digital backs on all their assignments so that they are thoroughly versed in digital capture and output. Towards the end of the semester, students work one-on-one with instructors in their particular area of interest to complete a body of work. Students master the expert use of Capture One for live digital capture, RAW processing, and shoot management using high-end medium format digital backs as well as DSLR cameras.

Prerequisite(s): Photography Practicum I

Professional Methods II

Questions posed in Professional Methods I will be applied and expanded upon in this course. In addition, this course expands on students’ knowledge of the Professional Photography business. Portfolio development, self-promotion strategies and essential business practices are emphasized in students’ fields of interest. Students will work on branding their own business identity and constructing a business plan.

Prerequisite(s): Professional Methods I

Historical & Critical Perspectives II

The integral and increasingly fluid relationship between the photograph and the moving image in contemporary arts practice will be explored in this course. Special attention will be paid to the critical and historical discourses that have shaped cinema practice and tradition as well as the significance of editing and the treatment of time. Included are examination and discussion of the shared histories of the still and moving image.

Prerequisite(s): Historical & Critical Perspectives I

Thesis Prep

Clearly stating objectives gives each student and their instructor a well-defined goal to work towards in Semester Four when focus shifts to the graduation project. Students will write a proposal of 10–20 pages outlining what their project will be about, why they chose it as their body of work and how they will go about completing it. Students will be expected to thoroughly research their chosen genre, explaining its historical precedents and influences.

Advanced Imaging I

This course encompasses application of advanced printing techniques. Students are immersed in advanced color correction techniques for digital prepress including CMYK and LAB modes, framework-based tone and color manipulation to orchestrate visual attention, advanced printing techniques, scanning, spotting, sharpening and digitally printing film negatives using high-end dedicated film scanners, the use of exotic media including transparency film, the use of color RIP systems, and printing using dedicated monochrome Piezography ink sets in modern inkjet (giclée) printers.

Thesis Project

Students will execute and complete their thesis projects, culminating in an end-of-program group exhibition.

Following their clearly stated thesis objectives from Semester Three, each student will refine their body of creative work in the following ways: through peer and instructor feedback, rigorous critiques, an artist’s statement, editing sessions, planning and designing the exhibition; sequencing images to achieve the desired viewer impact, mounting, framing hanging techniques and the installation itself.

Advanced Imaging II

A practical course where students are guided through their specific projects in specialized techniques such as compositing, advanced workflow, mastering high-resolution files with Smart Objects and learning professional masking and high-end retouching. The goal of this course is to augment and refine each student’s Photoshop skills for a wide range of applications both in the studio and the workplace.

Prerequisite(s): Advanced Imaging I

Navigating the Industry

As students transition to the professional world beyond the academic environment, this course provides practical guidance on the myriad ways photographers skills are utilized in the industry. This course includes guest lectures as well as guidance in preparing a final marketing package photographers will need once they finish the program.

Digital Printing Methodologies

Under the guidance of instructors, students will produce exhibition quality prints for the graduation show. Expanding on existing skills from Advanced Imaging, students will fine-tune the technical controls required for professional level printmaking and workflow. Students will also experiment with input and output variances that affect their final print including modifying tonal adjustments to match the proofs, appropriate sharpening techniques and understanding proofs in relation to size, substrate and color. Black-and-white or color printing, students will be expected to analyze and adjust their own prints every step of the way.

Book Design for Photographers*

The photo book is currently one of the most popular methods for presentation and marketing of one’s work within the photographic industry. Starting with the subject matter and visual concept, this course will cover editing, photo sequencing and all aspects of design and final output as well as self-publishing or working with a publishing company.

Portfolio Development*

A student’s portfolio consolidates the use of the photographic image as a means of expression and communication, demonstrating technical ability, creative vision and personal aesthetic brought together in a cohesive body of work.

Through a process of self-reflection, peer review and lecturer feedback, students will produce and fine-tune a portfolio to a standard that is ready for presentation to the professional sector in their chosen area of the industry.

Internship/Self Promotion*

As students continue to review and refine both their print and online work, this course prepares them for a career in professional photography: presenting and targeting their portfolios to specific markets.

Students learn how to distinguish themselves through branding, develop strategic marketing plans and identify themselves through marketing their portfolios to meet the needs of different clients. This course also includes techniques for market-specific portfolios and promotional materials including business cards.

For the internship component of this course, students receive valuable hands-on experience in a variety of areas in the industry, from assisting photographers to working with a production company. Students are assisted in finding a position, which must have approval from the Faculty Chair of Photography to receive credit. Students unable to secure an internship must complete an alternative project in order to meet this course requirement.

Alternative Processes*

In this course, students will explore alternative silver processes including lith printing, chromoskedasic and liquid light. Students are encouraged to explore the myriad creative uses of a variety of processing and printing techniques as a way to expand -their photographic vocabulary and personal work.

Motion Capture for Photographers*

Today’s photographers are expected to be equally as skilled at using video as they are the still image. This course offers students a solid introduction to time-based media, allowing them to practice core skills in cinematography, using continuous light sources, directing, screenwriting, location sound recording, directing actors, producing, and non-linear editing. Students produce two projects during the semester.

Advanced Film Photography*

A hands-on class in medium and large format film photography, the Zone System for exposure and development, and B&W photochemical printing. Using mechanical cameras and lenses, students will learn the technology and processes involved in photochemical photography, from the mechanics of the cameras themselves to traditional darkroom techniques for developing film and making silver prints on both RC and fiber paper.

Students will gain hands-on experience in black and white printing and develop their own creative vision by making images in a variety of genres and lighting conditions, including landscape, architecture, portrait and still-life.

Current Perspectives in Photography*

In this course, students consolidate their knowledge of the image as a means of expressing ideas, emotions and experiences. Students will have the opportunity to freely explore a range of critical, aesthetic and practical issues relevant to contemporary photographers. Engaging in readings, lectures, discussions, research and writing will expand critical thinking and expressive skills.

Prerequisite(s): Successful Completion of Semester 3 Courses

Faculty

Michele KirkChair of Photography

Michele Kirk studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, earning a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Photography and Art History. She later earned an MFA in Advertising, with a minor in Design and Photography from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA. Michele enjoyed a very successful career in advertising, working with clients such as Macy’s, Intuit, Liquid Agency, J. Walter Thompson, Goodby, BC&A, and Whizbang.

Michele's success in advertising led to a gratifying career as an educator and administrator at several prestigious art colleges throughout California.

Kean O'Brien is an educator, artist, and community organizer living and working in Los Angeles. He teaches Photography and Media, holding an MFA degree from the California Institute of Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. O’Brien has served on the College Art Association Media Panels, is published in ISSUES #1 and #2, the International Performance Almanac for 2013 and 2014, and Wild Gender in 2014. He has exhibited at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive, Waterloo Arts in Cleveland, Barnsdall Art Center in Hollywood, REDCAT in Los Angeles, SRISA Gallery in Italy, and has been awarded curatorial grants from the City of West Hollywood Arts Council, Ronald Feldman Gallery NYC, and Cal Arts.

Johanna Breiding’s practice stems from photography, considering the medium’s history, its representational role, and limits. Expanding to video and installation, Breiding locates her work within the intersection of analog and digital technologies, the construction of gender and cultural identity, and a critique of heteronormative ideologies within the personal and social space. Recent projects address a range of topics, including the death of analog photography via a small town, Keeler in Owens Valley, CA; the art historical canon of Land Art through portraiture and landscape photography; and the notion of hyperobjects and the (Post¬) Anthropocene. Breiding holds an MFA from the California Institute of Arts in Photography and Media. She is based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and originally from Switzerland.

Billie Jo CarvelloIntermediate Imaging, Imaging Essentials

Van DitthavongCapture to Print II, Imaging Output, Imaging III

Van Ditthavong is an award winning photographer and filmmaker. His short films have been screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, The Independent Filmmakers Showcase, The Atlanta Shortsfest and The Pasadena International Film Festival. His photography work has been featured in Guitar World, Men's Health, Psychology Today, American Way, Smart Money, AARP Bulletin, Spirit, Stern Magazine, Orange Coast and Texas Monthly.

Paul EmbergerPhoto Foundations I, Photo Foundations II

Paul Emberger is a travel and fine art photographer. He’s been freelancing since 1997 and has more than 1000 publishing credits to date. His fine art is collected publicly and privately in the US and abroad.

David is a celebrity and fashion photographer who shoots for many editorial and advertising clients nationally. Published two celebrity portrait books that have raised over a half million dollars for the Susan G. Komen "Race for the Cure."

Linda LewisPhotography I, Introduction to Lighting

BA Studio Art, Cal State, Fullerton. Faculty member at Chaffey Community College. Instructor, Julia Dean Workshops and commercial photographer for over 15 years.

Lilly received her MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006 and her BFA in Photography from the University of Arizona in 2004. She was a participant at Skowhegan, Maine in 2006 and a 2008/09 Winter Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Cape Cod. Lilly’s work has been shown worldwide, including at TR1 in Finland, Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco, and Air Gallery in NYC.

Lilly lives in Los Angeles where she makes work about her complex relationship with the American West and what it means to be an American in an era of diminished expectations.

Mark McKnightPhotojournalism, Photography Practicum

Mark McKnight is an artist based in Los Angeles whose work has been exhibited and published throughout the United States and in Europe. In 2009 he traveled to Finland on a Fulbright Scholarship. He earned his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007, and his MFA at University of California, Riverside in 2015. His work was recently included in The Surface of Color, at The Pit, Glendale, California.

Kathleen MclaughlinWays of Seeing II, III and IV, History and Aesthetics of Photography II

MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University. Recipient of the Fulbright Senior Scholarship, IREX IARO Grant (NEH), and a Houston Center for Photography Fellowship. Her images have appeared in PDN, LensWork, Rangefinder, B&W Magazine, and The Times Saturday Magazine (UK) and permanent collections at MOPA San Diego, Western Virginia Museum of Art, and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.

Sonya Naumann is a visual artist working in photography and video as a means of investigating the collective process of individual identity constructs using the qualitative research method of artistic autoethnography. She was the 2009 Bodine Fellow at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History where she received her MFA, Cum Laude, and went on to serve as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Photography Department and the Department of Teaching and Learning. Her work on The Thousand Dollar Dress Project and The Dunce Series have been exhibited and published in various spaces including The Center For Fine Art Photography, University of Nevada, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Fraction Magazine, Bust Magazine, Your Assignment: Photography, and The American Scholar Journal.

Jennifer RosensteinMoving Image I, Film Photography

Jennifer Rosenstein, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, is a photographer who specializes in videography. Jen is a graduate from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA with a BFA in Photography and Imaging. For the past eight years she has shot music videos for Atlantic Records, EMI, Universal Music, Warner Bros. Music, and Island Records. Jen also photographs the Transgender Community, various ad campaigns, and musicians and their life on the road.

Lara Rossignol has been a fashion and portrait photographer for over 25 years. She graduated with a BFA in Photography from Art Center College and has shot for Max Factor, Bloomingdale's, Pyrex, Dixie, and over 50 different magazines including Vogue, Interview, and Rolling Stone. She is currently working with Chronicle Books on her first photography book due out in 2017.

Amanda Rowan graduated Cum Laude from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU with a degree in Photography and Filmmaking. She has worked in NYC and LA as a portrait photographer shooting for corporate clients, international artists and pop celebrities. In 2014, Rowan published, Born Backstage, a photography book that documents the creative children of folk and rock legends of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Kirk Saylin is an advertising and commercial photographer based in Long Beach, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of LaVerne in Communications with an emphasis in video production.

Kirk has worked for global agencies, as well as small boutique agencies, but his favorite clients are the ones who invite him in to the creative process to visually illustrate the story that the brand needs to be told. He has photographed rock stars, cars, and pop culture models.

Zoëe received her MFA from California State University Los Angeles and her BA in psychology and BFA in art from the University of Iowa. Her work focuses on media theory, perception, and memory. She is focused on the art of photography and cultural studies. Her classes teach critical viewing skills and expand creativity while exploring the layers of psychology imbedded in photography.

Josh SouthwickAdvanced Imaging I

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Josh moved to California in 2002. He received his BFA from Cal State Long Beach in 2008. He has been a staff photographer for ACCESS Para-transit and Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority for over 8 years. Some of his freelance clients include. POM Wonderful, popchips, YMCA, Cuties, Wonderful Pistachios, ACI Boland Architects, and MetroLink. Josh was also featured in the 2009 Communication Arts Photo Annual.

Naomi WhiteProfessional Methods, Thesis Prep, Photography Essentials

Naomi White is an artist, photographer, and educator. Her work has been shown extensively, including at Tobey Fine Arts in New York, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York, GE World Headquarters in Connecticut, and The Center For Fine Art Photography in Colorado. Her work is held in both public and private collections such as the recent purchase by Saatchi Art for their permanent collection, and Creative Artists Agency in Century City.
Educated in New York where she lived for many years, Naomi has recently returned to Los Angeles where she was born and raised. She is a creative portrait and fine art photographer drawing from a diverse background in art history and film, to create art photography with a focus on portraiture and narrative tableau.

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• September 2019 • January 2020• September 2020

NUMBER OF SEMESTERS:4

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